Michael Devine: Truman showed restraint in use of nuclear weapons

Throughout his life, Harry S. Truman maintained that he authorized the use of the atomic bombs in August 1945 to bring the war against Japan to a conclusion as soon as possible.

Truman believed his decision saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of American and Allied soldiers, sailors and POWs. He also believed his action saved countless Japanese who would have died had the war continued and their home islands been invaded. There would also have been many Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos and others living in areas occupied by the Japanese military who would have died. Historians will forever debate the necessity of the atomic bombs, but Truman, at least publicly, expressed no reservations.

It is clear from the historical record, however, that President Truman was determined never to use atomic weapons again, once the reports of the first bomb’s devastating force reached his desk. In several instances, President Truman decided against the use of nuclear weapons during the remainder of his administration.

The day after the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Truman told his Cabinet that “he had given orders to stop atomic bombing. He said the thought of wiping out another 100,000 was too horrible.” Truman’s order may have saved Japan from the possibility of further devastation from a third atomic bomb.

In 1948, when the Soviet blockade of allied access to West Berlin created an international crisis, the nuclear option was considered. On July 21, the secretary of defense and the secretaries of the Army and Air Force argued that the president should transfer atomic weapons from civilian to military control. Truman interrupted, stating: “I don’t think we ought to use this thing unless we absolutely have to. It’s a terrible thing to order the use of something that ... is so destructive. This isn’t a military weapon ... it is used to wipe out women and children and unarmed people, and not for military use. So we have got to treat this differently from rifles, and cannon and ordinary things like that.”

The military leaders were denied, and atomic weapons remained under the civilian control of the president.

During the Korean War, the Truman administration faced the most serious crisis of the early Cold War era. The nuclear option was under consideration from the very beginning of the conflict. Within a few weeks of the North Korean invasion of South Korea, Gen. Douglas MacArthur called for a discussion among the Joint Chiefs of Staff to evaluate “whether or not A bombs should be made available for use in the Korean conflict.” On Nov. 28, 1950, the U.S. Army Plans and Operations Division urged readiness to make “prompt use of the atomic bomb ... if and when directed by the President.”

In a press conference on Nov. 30, Truman responded to a reporter’s question on the atomic bomb by stating: “There has always been active consideration of its use.” However, Truman and his aides quickly corrected the impression that the commander in the field, MacArthur, had authority to use atomic weapons. And Truman assured NATO allies that he had no intention of authorizing nuclear strikes.

Truman knew that the use of nuclear weapons in Korea would escalate a regional conflict into a Third World War.

While the threat of the nuclear weapons remains, succeeding American presidents have exercised the same restraint and caution during times of crisis that President Truman did in the years following Hiroshima and Nagasaki.